The World Wide Web (hereinafter the Web) is a world wide network of computers that are interconnected and able to communicate with each other via the Internet. Hypertext transfer protocol (http) is the protocol used for transferring Web pages and supplemental files over the Internet. Web servers are computers that form part of the Web and whose general purpose is to provide information to other computers coupled to the Web. Those computers that are primarily used to request and receive information via the Web from Web servers are typically termed client machines or client computers.
On the Web, information is served in the form of Web pages written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language). Thus, for example, a retail Web sight operator couples to the internet via a server on which is stored a plurality of Web pages written in HTML programming language. The HTML defining a Web page defines the manner of presentation of information on the client machine. The HTML code also typically includes the textual content of the page. However, other types of content, such as images, audio, background, and multimedia are contained in separate, supplemental, files stored on the server which are referenced within the HTML code by HTML tags. For instance, images may be stored in separate files in jpeg format or gif format. Audio files may be stored in mp3, wav, wma (the Windows™ media application), or other formats.
In a common type of example, a Web retailer has a server coupled to the Web. A customer accesses the Web retailer's Web site from a desktop computer using Web browser software such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™ or Netscape Navigator™. The customer's desktop PC utilizing the Web browser software would be considered a client machine.
The Web browser running on the client machine requests a particular Web page in a manner well known to those of skill in the art. Upon receipt of the request for a particular Web page, the server serves the HTML code for that page to the client machine via the Internet.
As noted above, the HTML code for any given page is likely to contain a references to supplemental files such as image files, audio files and/or multimedia files. When the browser receives the HTML code for the page, it parses the page to find references to supplemental files and sends requests back to the server for the supplemental files referenced in the code.
Browsers typically read the HTML code in a standard left to right, top to bottom manner and send out requests for the referenced supplemental files in the order in which they are encountered while reading the page. The server receives the requests and sends the supplemental files back to the browser in the order in which the requests are received. Typically, most browsers support multiple virtual ports for receiving supplemental files. Thus, for example, a browser with support for four virtual ports can send out four requests for supplemental files and begin receiving those supplemental files simultaneously. When a supplemental file is received in full, the browser will send out another request for the next supplemental file (assuming there are five or more supplemental files) until all of the supplemental files in the page are fully received and rendered by the browser. Since some files may be smaller than others, the order in which the requests for supplemental files are sent out does not necessarily correspond to the order to which they are received in their entirety. For instance, a small file that is requested after a larger file may be completely received and rendered before the earlier larger file.
Accordingly, the content of a page is rendered in a piece meal fashion dictated primarily by the order in which the supplemental files are referenced in the HTML code as well as the size of the files.
Some supplemental files associated with a Web page may require a significant period to download, during which time the individual at the client machine may become impatient. For instance, high resolution and/or large image files, audio files, multimedia files and video files can take a large amount of time to download. During that time, the user at the client machine may become bored or impatient. Thus, it is desirable to be able to have one or more portions of the content of the page be downloaded and displayed first so that the user at the client machine will have something to occupy his or her attention while the remainder of the supplemental files download.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for downloading Web pages, including supplemental files.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for controlling the order in which supplemental files referenced in a Web page are served to the client machine.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus by which the server controls the order in which supplemental files referenced in a HTML page are served to the client machine.